The perpetual appeal of walled gardens, let alone Venetian ones - private, invisible to those outside, with a delicious water gate giving onto a canal, and exhaling drifts of orange blossom ... read more
With its grottoes, terraces and fountains, the Villa d'Este has arguably the finest garden of the Italian Renaissance. Stunning photographs of both villa and garden, with a text by the direc... read more
CM has become the supreme chronicler of Italy under Mussolini. Indefatigable and brilliant, she turns her attention now to Mussolini's favourite and influential daughter, who married Count C... read more
Modigliani's changing style, looking at the collection of his work in the Barnes Foundation as well as paintings from private collections and institutions around the world.
The subtle and growing bonds between two couples in occupied Turin: this is a classic of wartime Italian fiction, translated now into English for the first time. Bassani called it "successfu... read more
CT, a foreign correspondent, had a house in the Appenines in the area of the 2016 earthquakes. Starting with letters found in her attic, she delves into the life of her house's last permanen... read more
A snakes-and-ladders novella about the misplaced confidence of a bossy widow, whose aspirations to a life of refinement and social elevation bring about her downfall. Ginzburg, as ever, is l... read more
Another of Ginzburg's lambent, ironic novellas: this time about a spoilt boy who grows into a feckless youth. Both he and his parents are blinded by unrealistic hopes, while his sister (the ... read more
First translation of his novel set in Naples in the shadow of WW2, about a railway clerk, thwarted in his artistic ambitions, and his long-suffering family. Published in Italian 20 years ago... read more
The beautiful C17th baroque villa near Siena was bought by Tony Lambton in the 1970s and recently restored by the next generation after a fire, with the help of Camilla Guinness.
Eye-stretching and ebullient examples of Italian Brutalism - many very beautiful - from the publishing team that brought us Soviet Bus Stops a few years ago and other architectural wonders.
A young Sicilian woman delves into her family's history, their relationships, intrigues, betrayals, struggles. This is a new translation and the first unabridged version of what is widely co... read more
Despite its often fraught encounters with democracy, science and secular culture, the Catholic Church's story in the modern era is one of remarkable survival.
A new collection of short stories by the acclaimed writer who moved to Rome in 2012 and now only writes in Italian. Her many awards include a Pulitzer prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Na... read more
The architecture and interiors of Pompeii, photographed in natural light and in marvellous detail. This lavish book has emerged from a project undertaken by Spina and the Parco Archeologico ... read more
A study of the way in which Vesuvius and the excavations in the Bay of Naples in 1738 and afterwards became a potent political and emotional vehicle for artists, intellectuals, Grand Tourist... read more
Besides looking at the artist's paintings and works on paper, this book includes many previously unpublished documents and photographs from the family archives.
The author went to Venice in 1957, aged 25, to have fun for a season among the rich and glam. Written with 67 years' hindsight, this memoir is a vivid evocation of a vanished era.
Drawing on the author's own experiences of WW2, the novel's protagonist rebels against the pressures of family and politics in Fascist Italy. First published in 1949. By the author of Forbid... read more
The Tyrrhenian Sea to be precise: AG drifts down the western coast of Tuscany, Lazio and Campania, and on past Naples and the Amalfi coast to northern Sicily, spilling capers, lemons, ricott... read more
A new edition of this splendid book, in a smaller format and illustrated with a few drawings rather than photographs. Roddy writes wonderfully about Testaccio (where she has lived for over a... read more
Grigson's first book on Pugliese cooking after moving to the heel of Italy five years ago: generous and informal food from the coast to the hills around Basilicata and Calabria. Fish, meat, ... read more
In the 1550s, a Venetian public servant produced three anonymous volumes of geographical data, some of it well known, some hitherto secret: Renaissance Wikileaks.
From the formality of the palace gardens along the Grand Canal to the less opulent on some of the other islands in the Venetian lagoon, photographed in every season.
The C15th house restored by Iris and Antonio Origo in the 1920s and '30s, with Cecil Pinsent's famous garden looking out over the Val d'Orcia to Monte Amiato. By their daughter and granddaug... read more
It is nearly thirty years since Aciman's superb memoir of his Alexandria childhood, Out of Egypt. Since Call Me By Your Name he has mutated from an academic scholar of Proust into a bestsell... read more